Ipswich police administer Narcan

Tuesday

Police and firefighters responded to a 911 call at the River Station Condominiums, 23 South Main St., Monday night around 9 p.m., where a woman had collapsed outside the building.

Officers on the scene administered Narcan, an opiate and opiod reversal drug, and performed CPR, said Police Chief Paul Nikas.

An ambulance transported the victim to Beverly Hospital for further treatment.

Police didn’t release the victim’s name, age or address.

Police have made no arrests in connection with the medical emergency.

Nikas called the incident “a suspected” drug overdose, but police couldn’t yet specify what drug or drugs may have been involved.

Narcan, generic name naloxone, reverses the effects of an opiate or opiod drug overdose. When a victim overdoses, the heart and breathing stop because opiates and opiods are depressants and suppress basic bodily functions. The Narcan reverses this depressing effect and resuscitates the victim.

Opiates are drugs derived from opium and opiods are synthetic-based drugs that create the same effect as opium-based drugs, although opiods differ chemically.

Generally, both types of drugs now go under the name opiod and both are addictive.

Opiods include heroin and prescription pain-management drugs such as morphine, codeine, oxycodone, Vicodin and Fentanyl, a synthetic drug that is similar to morphine, but 50 to 100 times more powerful, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The suspected drug overdose marks at least the second suspected overdose in a month in Ipswich.

Police are still investigating a suspected fatal overdose on Turkey Shore Road in February.

Note: Dan Mac Alpine lives at the River Station Condominiums and is a condominium association trustee.